"High ho!" Emit hummed. I groaned. He's been at this for the past hour. Singing and bopping in the air to the tune of his own creation. I've long since stopped trying to shut him up. I think the worst part is I know for a fact he can hear my disdain since my thoughts are no longer private and yet he still continues.

So either he's ignoring me out right or is so into his song that he's tuning me out. Jerk.

I flipped through the pages of my journal back to the map. I hadn't made too much progress since encountering the ‘Monkey-Spiders’ as my singing companion called them. I needed to take a moment to rest, all that running had me wiped out.

I really needed to exercise more, so next time that wouldn’t be an issue. My mind drifts to a certain crimson feathered friend of mine. She always did say I needed to get out more. So I’ve stayed in since moving to Chronos? Is that such a big deal? To be fair I never did expect to be running for my life!

I sighed. Lyra was ultimately right however, even if for different reasons than expected. I’d never tell her that though. Her ego would explode.

Anyways, I’ve properly rested up and made sure there was no lasting damage from the acid. I came out pretty okay all things considered.

I stuck a finger through the hole in my shirt. The acid had eaten into my clothes a bit and even singed the fur underneath. I look like something mauled me! Which… is pretty accurate actually.

This whole day has been a mess. I just wanna get this stupid thing over with. Place Emit back in his body or whatever and then get on with my life.

I continued down the path marked in my journal. Emit continued to hum and I found myself accidentally joining in at moments. It was annoying but also catchy. Damn it.

“High ho! Let’s go! To the depths of the sea~ High ho! Let’s go! Baby follow me~” Emit sang. His light getting ever increasingly brighter along with his mood.

My goodness. I stepped up the pace. I was almost to the end of the floor now. The other rooms following the forest were uneventful. Less trees, no rabbits, no acid creatures. Just how I prefer it.

When I finally reached the end. I was greeted to the sight of other Fallen. There were two of them. One was a female with darker feathers and fur that was covered in a simple leather garb similar to my own. The other was a male Fallen. He wore chainlinks that seemed kind of heavy in my opinion. Bits of his cream colored feathers poked out. Probably from putting the thing on too hastily would be my guess.

They were sitting around on several logs of cut down trees, next to an unlit firepit. They were having some sort of conversation that I couldn’t hear. I approached and they turned their heads at the sound of me, The chainmail Fallen briefly gripped the axe beside him but then relaxed when he saw that I was just another adventurer.

“Hello!” He waved. “It’s always nice to see a friendly face! Want a cup of water?”

“Don’t bother him! I’m sure he has supplies of his own anyway.” The girl said.

“Erm… I’m okay.” I replied.

“See? Told you!” The girl said, shooting daggers at him.

“Nonsense, sit down!” The guy said, scooting over and slapping the area beside him.

Is this the so-called peer pressure? I feel like I can’t refuse now. I cautiously sit down next to the fellow. The wood poked at me. Not comfortable at all. A tin cup filled with liquid was thrusted into my face by the Fallen beside me.

“Thanks.” I said, taking the cup and resting it in my lap.

“Names Chap! Nice to meet you!” He said. “What’s yours?”

I opened my mouth to reply when he interrupted me.

“Oh! Feathers is it? Weird name if you ask me.”

What? How would he even know of… Oh. I looked down to my shirt. Part of the acid had eaten through my shirt and revealed the pass I had to get into here.

“Yep, it sure is.” I said, taking a sip of water to hold back a sigh. Easier just to go with it at this point.

“It isn’t nice to make fun of others names, Chap. Yours isn’t the most normal either.” The girl said. “My name is Kamila. Nice to meet you.”

“So what brings you in here?” Chap said.

“Oh you know. I’m just here looking for crystals and whatnot.” I lied. I seriously doubt they’d believe me if I said I’m trying to stop this place from blowing up.

“Alone?” Kamlia asked.

“Yeah? Is that weird?” I replied.

“Extremely. How'd you get past those Papitulas?” Chap asked.

“The what?” I said, extremely confused.

“Y’know, the multi legged rock throwing creatures?” Chap added.

“Oh! The Monkey-Spiders!” I said. They both gave me a strange look.

“The heck is a ‘mankey-spooder’?” Kamila said.

Emit flew around the pit and began buzzing about, now paying attention rather than singing. “Is that a real question? It’s a self explationtory description! You cat-birds ever been to a zoo? Clearly those things are Monkey-Spiders! I don’t know what kind of radioactive spider bit a baboon one day but lemme tell you that…”

“Can you please shut up?” I said.

“Excuse me?” Kamila said. Oh crap.

“Sorry, I wasn’t talking to you.” I said.

“Then who were you talking to, buddy?”

“Uh… the voice inside of my head?” I tried. They both just looked at me. Chap covered his beak from me and mouthed something to Kamila and she nodded her head.

“Here, have some more water. You definitely need it.” Chap said, refilling my cup from his waterskin.

“S-so anyway.” I continued. “I fled from the Monke- Papitualas, after they surrounded me.”

“Mighty dangerous friend. This Tower isn’t kind to those who wander alone.” Chap said. “Then again, I guess you aren’t too alone with the voices talkin to you…”

“Chap!” Kamilia shouted.

“Sorry sorry. Really though, it’s extremely dangerous to be here on your own. I’m surprised the guards even let you pass. Do you wanna travel with us? We were going to rest for a few hours then continue up.” Chap offered.

I thought about it briefly. It would be nice having two other people with me, but a couple hours is something I’m not even sure if I have. This shortcut of Emit’s might not pan out and every second counts.

“Thanks but I think I’ll be okay.” I said.

“If you say so.” Chap said, shrugging.

There was a moment of silence.

“So what are you two doing here?” I asked.

“Us? We’re hoping to chart out the other floors. So far only the first has been documented.” Kamilia said.

“Huh? The other floors? Shouldn’t there already be maps of them?” I said, thinking back to the bookstore I had copied this map from. I didn’t see any for other than the first but I figured someone already bought them all.

“How green are you?” Kamila said. I looked at the green tips of my feathers.

“About more lime green than anything. Maybe a basil green? But overall not too green, only the tips of my feathers are really green, I’m mostly grey to be honest.” I said.

“Not visually, I meant- Nevermind.” She said, sighing. “So I’m assuming you're unaware of the shifts?”

“The what?” I found myself saying again.

“That’ll be a yes. Here’s a lesson from me to you.” Kamlia took a branch that was sticking off of her log and broke it. She then drew a diagram in the dirt in front of the fire pit. It was a crude drawing of the Tower, sliced aparted by several lines spanning from the bottom to the top.

“So I’m assuming you’re at least aware that the Tower opens and closes ever so often, right?”

I nodded.

“Okay good. So imagine this, you’ve been walking around, made your way up quite a bit, marking down all the pathways and then decide to leave for another day.” Kamlia said, drawing little halls and rooms in the dirt on various sections of the Tower.

“Next thing you know, the next day it’s already shut again for another year.”

“A year? Wasn’t the last opening just six months ago?” I asked.

“Yes, usually it’s yearly though. It’s pretty strange for it to be open this soon actually.” Kamila admitted. “But that’s besides the point. So you’re locked out right? Oh well, you say to yourself, I’ll just come back when it’s open and you do. But when you return you find out everything is different.”

Kamlia scrubbed out the sections of rooms and halls. “Suddenly the hall you wrote about before is gone, and the room you detailed is a lot smaller. That’s because for whatever reason, the entire layout of this place changes every time it closes and reopens to the outside world.”

Whaaat? “That’s crazy… How is that even possible?”

Kamila shrugged. “I dunno, but it gives us a way to make profit.”

“Yeah, we explore the first few levels of the Tower, and then sell off the maps for lots of money!” Chap added.

“The Tower’s already been open for awhile now though, shouldn’t the first few floors be mapped out already?” I asked.

“Usually the first weaker crowd attempts to barge in and get the first floor done as quickly as possible. Then the stronger folks usually take weeks of supplies up to map it further, exploring every little inch. They’re not coming back down for a while. That leaves those in the middle like us, We’re just gonna mark out the first couple of floors then head back for the profits.” Kamlia said.

I nodded and then felt my heart drop a bit. She said weeks of supplies. Even assuming I ran my way to the top, avoiding any and all danger, I don’t think I could even make it. An anxiety began rising in my chest.

“Thanks for the explanation, but I think I’ll be heading out now.” I said, chugging the last bit of water in my cup and getting up.

“Already? You really sure you don’t want to join us?” Chap said.

“Extremely sure.” I said, walking away from the two and out towards the exit.

They said something else but I ignored it. I had pressing issues on my mind now. I walked to the entrance of a winding staircase. Whatever magic that naturally lit up the areas of this place wasn’t as effective here, it was several times darker. Thankfully it was still bright enough to see the stone step twist upwards. Not to mention the light emanating from Emit helped a lot.

“Emit.” I said, beginning my trek upwards.

“Yeah Kid?”

“Are you certain that the shortcut of yours is around?”

“One-hundred percent!” Emit said.

“Even though this place apparently ‘shifts’ around?”

“Oh yeah definitely. That black bird didn’t tell you but usually the first and last room stay exactly the same. The elevator just happens to be in the first room of the second floor!” Emit explained.

That made me feel a bit better but the dread in my heart still lingered. I continued upwards till I hit the second floor. The scenery was more of the same. Grass and trees. This area had a lot more vines though and different flowers about.

My eyes scanned the room. I have no idea what an ‘elevator’ looks like, so I’m just looking for something out of place. My eyes land on an area behind a few trees, there’s a shiny blue light coming from between them. I walked closer and saw a metal door covered in vines. I took out my sword and sliced them down.

Afterwards I was left with a door with two buttons on the side of it. This… looks extremely familiar. I tried pushing one of the buttons and the doors flew open.

“Is this the elevator?” I asked.

“Sure is! Step in!” Emit said.

“Okay…” I said. The last time I entered one of these I had no idea what was going on.

The doors shut behind me as soon as I stepped in. I turned around to see several rows of buttons with strange runes on them. There was a slot right below them as well.

“Hit the one that says ‘top’” Emit said.

“You do realize I can’t read this right?” I said.

“What do you mean you can’t read it? It’s the Queen’s English! You’re speaking it right now!”

“Huh? I’m speaking Fallish!”

Emit groaned. “Just hit the top right button.”

I did as I was told. The button turned a deep red.

“Unauthorized access. Insert I.D.” A voice rang out.

“What do you mean unauthorized access? I live here!” Emit said, turning redder himself.

Maybe it was just a mistake? I pressed it again.

“Unauthorized access. Insert I.D.”

“Son of a-!” Emit said. “Okay well looks like this way is a bust. Time to start walking, Kid.”

“No no no, that’s not an option. It’s gonna take me weeks to get to the top, you heard Kamila down there!” I said.

“Eh, maybe for someone without me on their side. But I’m sure with the two of us you’ll make it up there lickity split!” Emit replied.

I shook my head. “Nope. Not happening. Isn’t there a way to make this work? What’s this ‘I.D’ it keeps asking for?”

“An Identification card. It’s a pass that selectively tells the elevator who is and isn’t allowed.”

Another pass? I already had to get one to even enter this place.

“Okay... And how do I get one of those?” I asked.

“Beats me.” Emit bluntly said.

…

“Useless!” I swatted Emit with my talon, only leaving a trail of blue mist when it predictably just goes right through him. “What are you even good for?”

“Hey! I’m getting real tired of this useless business, Kid. You treat all gods like this?”

“Only the extremely useless ones! Don’t you live in this place? How could you not know where the I.D card thing is?” I said

“Sorry, it’s been a couple hundred years. It’s not my fault I don’t keep track of every little thing here. I’m busy!” Emit snapped back.

“Uh huh…” I said, sighing. I swear it’s like trying to get decent info out of a baby.

...Wait a minute.

“Did you just say you’re a god?” I asked.

“Yeah? Didn’t I mention that before?” Emit said.

“No! You didn’t! I just thought you were some weird spirit living in here or something.” I said.

“I’m not weird! I’m full of personality. At least that’s what I used to tell the ladies back in the day.” Emit said.

“If you’re really a god then that just makes all of this even worse!” I said.

“How so?”

“Because that just makes your help even more pitiful.” I said rolling my eyes.

“Hey now, that’s it! You want useful advice? I’ll give you some!” Emit said, buzzing in front of my face.

“All we need is an I.D card. I’m sure we can probably find one in a lab, I remember there used to be a city that researched this place a long time ago, So our best bet would be there.” Emit said.

“Find the lab, find a card, get to the top and boom! Adventure done!” Emit finished. If he had a face I could only imagine the amount of smugness that it would be displaying just based on his tone right now.

I digested his words. A city and a lab. I don’t even know what a lab is honestly.

“It’s a place with a ton of computers and junk.” Emit said.

“Computer?”

“Seriously? Not even computers? Do you guys even have video games then?”

“We have normal games. I’m not sure what a video game is though.” I said.

“I’m so sorry for your loss, Kid.” Emit said.

He’s crazy. I pressed random buttons, getting the same error and error again until the door finally opened up. I guess I no longer have to be in here anymore. I was going to ask what city but quickly realized it wasn’t going to be a Fallen city.

No I needed to go into a human one, if the ‘elevator’ was anything to go by. That meant going back into the ruins I had explored before with Lyra and her friends. It was the closest one I knew of and I didn’t have any other leads.

Should I go on my own? It’s a long ways away and honestly I mostly just followed everyone else when I went the last time. Plus, if the swarms of rats were anything to go by I don’t think I can handle it on my own.

Ugh. I guess I’m gonna have to swallow my pride and ask for some help.